ocean current,horizontal and vertical circulation system of ocean waters produced by gravity, wind friction, and water density variation in different parts of the ocean.

A brief treatment of ocean currents follows. For further discussion, see ocean: Circulation of the ocean waters.

The direction and form of oceanic currents is governed by a number of natural forces, including principally horizontal pressure gradient forces; forces generated by variable density of seawater, which is a product of temperature and salinity variables; the Coriolis forces, exerted by the rotating Earth on all moving objects at or near the Earth’s surface; and friction, caused by winds blowing over the ocean’s surface as well as the friction between different layers of water. The Coriolis forces cause ocean currents to move clockwise (anticyclonically) in the Northern Hemisphere and counterclockwise (cyclonically) in the Southern Hemisphere and deflect them about 45° from the wind direction. This movement creates distinctive current cells called gyres. The rotational pattern causes the anticyclonic gyres to displace their centres westward, forming strong western boundary currents against the eastern coasts of the continents, such as the Gulf Stream–North Atlantic–Norway Current in the Atlantic Ocean and the Kuroshio–North Pacific Current in the Pacific Ocean. In the Southern Hemisphere the counterclockwise circulation creates strong eastern boundary currents against the western coasts of continents, such as the Peru (Humboldt) Current off South America, the Benguela Current off western Africa, and the Western Australia Current. The Southern Hemisphere currents are influenced by the powerful eastward flowing, circumpolar Antarctic Current. It is a very deep, cold, and relatively slow-flowing current, but it carries a vast mass of water, about twice the volume of the Gulf Stream current. The Peru and Benguela currents draw water from this Antarctic current and, hence, are cold. The Northern Hemisphere lacks continuous open water bordering the Arctic and so has no corresponding powerful circumpolar current, but there are small, cold currents flowing south through the Bering Strait to form the Oya and Anadyr currents off eastern Russia and the California Current off western North America; others flow south around Greenland to form the cold Labrador and East Greenland currents. The Kuroshio–North Pacific and Gulf Stream–North Atlantic–Norway currents move warmer water into the Arctic Ocean via the Bering, Cape, and West Spitsbergen currents.

In the tropics the great clockwise and counterclockwise gyres flow westward as the Pacific North and South Equatorial currents, Atlantic North and South Equatorial currents, and the Indian South equatorial current. Because of the alternating monsoon climate of the northern Indian Ocean, the current in the northern Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea alternates. Between these massive currents are narrow eastward flowing countercurrents.

Vertical oceanic circulation is far less dramatic but is important because it brings up deep ocean waters and moves down surface waters. The wind-driven currents are confined to the Ekman Layer, the upper 100 m (330 ft) of the ocean; below this the deep currents are much slower. They are generated by the convection pattern caused by the surface currents. Where the surface currents converge because of meeting coastlines or encountering winds from the opposite direction, water tends to pile up but is also pulled down by gravity. Where waters diverge, the sea surface loses water, and deep ocean waters well up to the surface to replace the diverging waters. This pattern generates the convection that powers the undercurrents.

Vertical circulation also occurs because of variations in salinity, as saline water is denser than less saline water, and because warm water tends to rise and cold water tends to sink. Saline input comes from the Mediterranean Sea and to a lesser extent from the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. These seas lie in regions where evaporation exceeds precipitation and inflow. The more highly saline water produced by the net evaporation sinks in the eastern Mediterranean and flows in a deep bottom current, termed the Upper Deep Water, through the Straits of Gibraltar westward into the Atlantic Ocean, while at the surface, less saline Atlantic water flows eastward into the Mediterranean. A similar principle operates in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf. The Pacific Ocean lacks a similar input but acquires its salinity from the Upper Deep Water, which enters the Antarctic circumpolar current and thereby gradually reaches the Pacific Ocean. Other deep currents are generated by the cold Greenland and Bering Strait currents, which sink to form the Middle and Lower Deep water masses; in the Antarctic, very cold water from near the ice cap sinks to form the Antarctic Intermediate Water, which spreads northward at depths of 700–1,000 m. These Arctic and Antarctic currents are very cold and much less saline because of the input of melting fresh ice-shelf and glacial water.

Besides the large oceanic gyres, there are smaller current systems found in certain enclosed seas or ocean areas. Their circulation patterns are influenced more by the direction of water inflow than by the Coriolis forces. Such currents are found in the Tasmanian Sea, where the southward flowing East Australian Current generates counterclockwise circulation, in the northwestern Pacific, where the eastward flowing Kuroshio–North Pacific current causes counterclockwise circulation in the Alaska and Subarctic currents, in the Bay of Bengal, and in the Arabian Sea.

The study of oceanic currents developed as oceanic voyages became common in the 18th century, in the interests of navigation. Subsequent studies occurred because ocean currents were found to profoundly affect weather and climate. Thus, the Gulf Stream–North Atlantic–Norway Current brings warm tropical waters northward, warming the climates of eastern North America, the British Isles and Ireland, and the Atlantic coast of Norway in winter, and the Kuroshio–North Pacific Current does the same for Japan and western North America, where warmer winter climates also occur. The warmer waters also evaporate more readily in the warmer temperatures they help generate, increasing precipitation along these coasts. In the Southern Hemisphere, by contrast, the cold Peru and Benguela currents hinder evaporation and, as they flow along the warmer coasts of South America and southwest Africa, generate fogs but no precipitation, thereby generating the hyper-arid deserts of Peru, Chile, and Namibia; yet as these cold currents also well up from the deep ocean, they are rich in nutrients, and some of the world’s best fishing grounds are found in them.

Ocean currents and atmospheric circulation influence each other. For example, when periodically the warm, humid wind circulation above the western Pacific is displaced eastward, the eastern Pacific waters are warmed, creating the El Niño effect, which widely affects climate and weather, bringing drought to Australia, storms to California, and a warm winter to central North America and upsetting the fishing industry in Peru and Chile.